The first steps in mapping out your journey to retirement is knowing where you are and deciding where you want to go. As a part of the ‘Take Charge: Your Money. Your Life.’ series, 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy and the AICPA’s Personal Financial Planning Section are offering a free consumer webcast on Thursday, April 20 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM ET. CPA financial planner David Stolz, CPA/PFS will teach consumers how to chart their own path to retirement using their tax returns as a guide.

In this plain-English financial literacy webcast, listeners will learn:

How to use a tax return to provide a 360-degree view of your finances. A tax return is essentially an itemized bill for the past year. It shows important details about your current cash flows that can help you assess your current situation and plan for the future.

How to design the lifestyle you want through tracking and monitoring spending/expenses. Examples will be provided to help inspire consumers to come up with their own system of identifying and monitoring expenses that fits their needs/style.

The positive aspects of budgeting and how to make it work for you. Planning ahead is an important step toward finding peace of mind about money matters.

How to plan for retirement spending. If you want to maintain your current lifestyle in retirement, how much (in today’s dollars) will you need to do that?